Week of September 13, 2004

The Republican leadership adjourned Congress for a six-week recess at the end of the July without having completed a budget, a transportation bill, an energy bill, a homeland security appropriations bill, legislation to end $4 billion in European Union sanctions on American manufacturers or legislation to combat skyrocketing health care costs.

Congress returned to work this week with all of this and more on its plate. Following the release of the 9/11 Commission report in July, reform of the nation's intelligence capabilities became a top priority. Meanwhile, the end of the fiscal year looms with only one of the 13 appropriations bills completed.

The House will make scant progress on its long "to-do list" next week when it votes on the Fiscal Year 2004 Transportation, Treasury Appropriations Bill.

Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Congress is right on track to work the least amount of days of any Congress in the last 48 years. According to the House Republican Majority Leader’s calendar and the days Congress has already worked, this Congress will be in session only 96 days this year. How is the Republican Congress going to get such an enormous amount of important work done in such a short time? The simple answer is that it's not.

House Democrats must make clear to the American people that the Republican Congress is not getting the job done so that voters will hold them accountable in November.

Please feel free to share the attached documents, which includes a list of the important business left unfinished by this "do-nothing" Congress and a chart showing that this Congress is on track to work the fewest days in 48 years, with local reporters and constituents.